Students Evacuated from Scarsdale High School Due to Bomb Threat

(Updated at 2:45 pm) Police and the Westchester County Bomb squad, assisted by explosive detecting dogs, completed a search of the school and found nothing today. School officials were notified and students were bussed back to the high school where they will be released. Police will continue to investigate the incident in cooperation with personnel at the school and there will be increased patrols in the area.

(Posted at noon on 3-23) Students were evacuated from Scarsdale High School on Monday morning, March 23rd after a bomb threat was found in a girls' bathroom at the school. Pictured here, the message said, "My bomb is planted ar u ready to kill."

According to a student at the school, the fire alarm went off around 10:20 and everyone went outside and waited for buses to transport them to the middle school. At 10:23 am, a mom asked about the bomb threat on the Scarsdale Moms website. Apparently mothers were hearing from their children long before an email went out or an automated call was made from the school. It is not known whether there was a failure in the notification system or if administrators were too busy protecting the students to notify parents.

However at 11:56 am, this email from Superintendent Hagerman was received by a mother with a child in the school.

"Dear Scarsdale Families, We had a bomb threat at the High School earlier this morning. We do not believe this is a credible threat; however, in an abundance of caution, we evacuated the High School, and students were taken to the Middle School.

At this point, the police are here in the High School with the County Bomb Squad doing a comprehensive sweep of the building. As soon as we get clearance, we will return the students to the High School for a normal release.

We ask for your cooperation in not coming to either the HS or MS until normal release time or further notice."

Thank you.
Dr. Thomas Hagerman

Scarsdale Police Captain Thomas Altizio said this about the incident, "The Scarsdale Police Department has responded to a bomb threat at the Scarsdale High School. As a precaution, students are be relocated to another school. The Scarsdale Police are conducting a search of the High School with the assistance of the Westchester County Police. The incident is being actively investigated by the Scarsdale Police Department's Investigations Section.

A high school student said, "During 3rd period everyone had to go outside, and people were waiting for about an hour when buses came and took everyone to the middle school. Everyone was at the middle school in the gyms and auditorium waiting for further notice. Apparently now they are being bussed back to the high school and dismissed from there. I don't have any pictures, but everyone was really scared!"

Another student gave this account of the events of the day:  "After the fire alarm rang, we all went outside. We thought it was a drill or a false alarm. Then, the teachers told us to go to Dean Field and kept saying, "Move back! Move back!" At that point, when they kept pushing us father away from the school, we knew it wasn't a drill.We knew something must really be happening. We stayed with our classes and teachers took attendance. We waited for awhile, and then they told us we were being evacuated. We were hearing talk that there was a bomb scare. Buses pulled up and we began piling in. There was a news helicopter overhead, which made it seem serious. ... The buses were really crowded. We were sitting three and four kids to a seat, and many of the teachers rode the buses with us. In my case, we were sitting four friends in a seat together because we didn't want to be split up. Everyone was supposed to get on the buses, but when they said we were evacuating, some kids with their own cars drove home instead of getting on the bus. Some other kids sneaked through the cut-thorough to get to the library where they called for rides.

At the middle school, we got divided into two groups and went into the gym and the auditorium. We had nothing to do because we left our backpacks, with all of our work, in the classrooms at school. At some point we were all getting really hungry, but then one of the vice principals brought us food. Some people got sandwiches; others got chips or apples or granola bars. We all got something to drink."

At noon, parents did receive a call from Hagerman that said, "The threat is not believed to be credible. We evacuated kids as a precaution. The SPD is working with county bomb squad." He asked parents to "refrain from going to high school or middle school," and said we are "conducting a sweep of the school." They anticipate returning all students to the school after this is finished to conduct a normal school day with dismissal at regular times.

This report was compiled with help from Jeanette Warner Goldstein, Isabel Klein, Caroline Kristof and Traci Ludwig.